Whitsundays family holiday offers plenty to entertain

IT'S terrible to admit but I've lived in Brisbane my entire life and I've never ventured north to the Whitsundays.

That's not because I didn't want to go - splashing about in that beautiful blue water of the Coral Sea and exploring some of the region's 74 islands has been high on my to-do list for ages - but a busy life with a large family got in the way and this trip, along with weekly yoga sessions sadly fell off the radar.

So when an invitation to road-test the family holidays options in the Whitsundays crossed my desk, I jumped at the opportunity.

Home to eight island resorts, countless coastal towns and family-friendly activities, there really is a Whitsunday's holiday option that will suit all tastes and budgets.

With affordable (I spotted Brisbane to Hamilton Island flights for $49 this week) 1.5-hour flights heading up there for a family break is neither intimidating (long haul flights with a two-year-old send shivers down my spine) or outside our holiday budget.

So we road-tested a few options at different locations and prices to give you a taste of what the Whitsunday Islands can offer for your next family getaway.

From the moment we checked in, the kids were busy. The BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort in Airlie Beach is the only mainland Airlie Beach resort to offer a year-round Kids Club activity schedule and it shows.

We spent less than 24 hours at the resort but in this time we played tennis (badly), minigolf on the 18-hole course (competitively), raced about on the giant jumping pillow and zoomed around the 10.5ha of the resort on pedal karts (competitively again).

Before dinner we cooled down in what we later discovered was Airlie Beach's largest lagoon-style swimming pool complete with water slides and swim-up spas.

Meghan, 14, Will, 12, and Ella, 9, instantly made friends with other children staying at the resort who they played Marco Polo with until the sun set.

The following morning Jaala, 2, and I lined up for face-painting while Chris had a massage by the pool.

Our three-bedroom cabin, which was one of 40 cabins at the holiday park, came with a fully equipped kitchen, laundry and two bathrooms as well as a lounge room large enough for us to all lie down and watch a movie. We really didn't want to leave and could have happily settled in for a week.

As soon as I stepped out of our room I could hear laughter and I instantly knew it was my family having a ball somewhere on Daydream Island.

When I did hunt them down, over 250m away, I found my partner Chris and our eldest three children knee-deep in the resort's Living Reef - handfeeding stingrays as part of the island's Stingray Splash tour.

The Stingray Splash Tour on Daydream Island.Source:Supplied

As soon as she saw me, Ella screamed: "The baby stingray is eating my aqua shoe!" and Meghan was crouched over frozen halfway between screaming and laughing uncontrollably as a bamboo shark and stingray battled the passageway between her legs to get the food in her hand.

The Living Reef at Daydream Island is home to more than 40 marine fish species and 50 coral varieties, and this afternoon it was also home to my hysterical family who had the "funniest experience of their lives" there.

Daydream Island is also home to a range of family-friendly activities, which kept us happily entertained during our overnight stay including heated spas, Australia-themed mini golf, a rainforest walk and a free open-air cinema where we watched the latest James Bond movie after dinner in the underwater-themed and family friendly Fish Bowl restaurant.

TRAVEL DEAL

Receive one free night when you book five nights in a garden balcony room priced from $598 a person twin share. Price includes buffet breakfast daily; children under 14 stay and eat breakfast free when sharing a room with a paying adult. Valid for sale and travel until March next year. Block out periods and terms and conditions apply.

Ph 1800 075 040

Information

Daydream Island Stingray Splash Sessions are priced from $38 a person or $50 for a family of two adults and two children.

We travelled to Hayman Island aboard a "super luxurious boat" as Ella later named it. As we boarded, Chris and I were handed champagne, the kids soft-drinks, finger sandwiches and chocolates which they spilt (thank god for the leather seats) and fought over before we banished them to the "skipper's office" where they watched the "boat drivers" navigate their way to the island.

Before our trip I had heard Hayman Island was beautiful, but nothing prepared me for just how stunning the resort was going to be.

It had a $4 million landscaping makeover by Jamie Durie after Cyclone Yasi wreaked havoc two years ago. And even though the resort was full of guests, it was quiet, serene almost.

After checking into our joint Lagoon Rooms where the children were greeted with cups of milk and chocolates, which they ate on the veranda while watching the swans swim about in front of us (yep, seriously), we headed to the marina to meet and feed Jacko the giant groper.

Jacko is the biggest fish I've ever seen. Amazingly, he acted just like a dog, responding when called. Chris, Will and Ella took turns feeding Jacko who along with giant chunks of fish gulped down over 50 litres of water per powerful mouthful. I stood back stunned and silently vowing not to order fish for dinner again.

Jacko the groper. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

I shouldn't have worried; our dinner at La Trattoria served up delicious antipasto, pizzas and desserts and once the kids had finished eating, our waitress gave them bundles of pizza dough with which they made boats and fish. Their creations were cooked, glazed and delivered to our room after dinner. With a reputation as one of the Whitsunday's most prestigious resorts, I had never thought of Hayman as a family-friendly destination.

I was wrong. The all-day Kids Club and Activities Centre entertained the children for hours, leaving Chris and I to sit back and enjoy the view.

We also learnt while on the Twilight Wallaby Tour that Hayman Island is home to the Proserpine rock wallaby, which was close to extinction on the mainland. However, after a successful breeding program more than 200 of them now call Hayman Island home.

TRAVEL DEAL

Receive one free night when you book four nights at Hayman. Four nights priced from $885 a person twin share. Price includes buffet breakfast daily. Valid for travel until December 20. Block out periods may apply.